Olympian

Golf Legend

b. June 26, 1911
d. September 27, 1956

“My goal was to be the greatest athlete who ever lived.”

Recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all time, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson earned Olympic gold in track and field, starred in basketball and baseball, and won 10 major Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) championships.

The sixth of seven children, Didrikson was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and grew up in Beaumont. Her parents emigrated from Norway. As a child, Didrikson earned the nickname “Babe,” after Babe Ruth, for her reputation as a baseball slugger. In high school she competed in track and field and basketball, then left to play basketball for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

Didrikson competed in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She won two gold medals—one in the 80-meter hurdles and one in the javelin throw, setting world records in each—and a silver medal in the high jump. She is the only athlete to win Olympic medals in running, throwing and jumping events.

Between 1932 and 1935, Didrikson played baseball for the New Orleans Pelicans and the St. Louis Cardinals.
 
Around the same time, she took up golf, the sport that earned her the greatest recognition. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur tournament in 1946 and became the first American to win the British Ladies Amateur Tournament in 1947, the year she turned pro.

By 1950 Didrikson had won virtually every existing golf tournament or title, including the 1948 U.S. Women’s Open. She became a founding member of the LPGA.

Didrikson was inducted into LPGA Hall of Fame in 1951 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976. The Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year six times between 1932 and 1954 and Female Athlete of the Half Century in 1950.
 
Though the press and public lauded her ability, she was often belittled for her “mannish” appearance. Perhaps as a reaction, Didrikson married George Zaharias, a professional wrestler, in 1938. Didrikson had a long, intimate relationship with fellow golfer Betty Dodd, whom she toured with on the golf circuit. During the last six years of Didrikson’s life, Dodd moved in with her and Zaharias.

In addition to her athletic prowess, Didrikson’s talents included competitive sewing, pocket billiards, and singing and playing harmonica in her own successful vaudeville show. “Babe,” a 1975 television biopic on Didrikson, won a Golden Globe Award. The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center in Beaumont, Texas, houses her Olympic medals, golf clubs and other memorabilia.

Didrikson died of colon cancer at the age of 45.

Olympic Figure Skater 

b. November 11, 1989

“I thought of everything I had been through as a young kid to get to that moment, and to feel confident, and to feel that I really liked who I was.”

Adam Rippon is an Olympic figure skater and an advocate for LGBT rights. In 2018 he became the first openly gay American athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. At 28 he also became the oldest first-time Olympic skater to compete for the U.S. in more than 80 years. 

Rippon was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the eldest of six children. He started skating at age 10. The renowned coach Yelena Sergeeva trained him for seven years, beginning when he was 11. 

At the 2005 U.S. Championships, 16-year-old Rippon won the silver medal at the Novice level. He went on to win the 2007-08 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, the 2008 and 2009 World Junior Championships and the 2016 U.S. Championships. 

Rippon came out publicly in the October 2015 issue of Skating Magazine. He was one of three male figure skaters selected to represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.   

A month before the games, Rippon received a flurry of media attention for denouncing Vice President Mike Pence for his anti-LGBT positions. Rippon publicly opposed the selection of the vice president to lead the U.S. delegation to South Korea. He declined to join his American teammates in meeting Mr. Pence before the opening ceremonies.

In Pyeongchang, Rippon became a crowd favorite. He used Instagram and Twitter to connect with fans and demonstrate his playful, biting wit. His impeccable performance helped the United States capture the bronze in the men’s figure skating team event. 

Rippon emerged from the Winter Olympics a celebrity. TIME magazine named him to its list of 100 Most Influential People in 2018. Cher contributed to the TIME feature on Rippon. She wrote, “Adam is a skater who happens to be gay, and that represents something wonderful to young people.” 

Rippon’s Olympic achievements and LGBT advocacy have earned him interviews with numerous media outlets, including Out Magazine, The New York Times, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.”

In May 2018 Rippon competed in the 26th season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” He became the first openly gay man to win. 

Rippon performs in the “Stars on Ice” tour. He lives with his boyfriend, Jussi-Pekka Kajaala

Olympic Soccer Player

b. July 5, 1985, Redding, California

“Your personal life is less about people having to know about your sexuality than standing up for what’s right and fighting for equality.”

In 2012 professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe came out publicly two weeks before she was to play for the women’s soccer team in the London Olympics. “I feel like sports in general are still homophobic in the sense that not a lot of people are out,” she said. “I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want—they need—to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.”

Being closeted made Rapinoe feel inauthentic. It was her desire to do the right thing, to “stand up for what’s right and to fight for equality.” She said that when she came out she became a better player. In the Olympic Games, she scored three goals and logged four assists, helping her team win the gold medal.

“I’d like to help create more tolerance and acceptance across the board,” Rapinoe asserted. That means more people talking about it, more people coming out and, at the end of the day, making less of a massive deal about being gay. I’d like to see homosexuality become something that’s just normal to everyone.”

Olympic Figure Skater

b. September 7, 1969, San Jose, California

“HIV-AIDS is not a death sentence. You can go out there and do what you want.”

In 1996 Rudy Galindo became the first United States skating champion to come out as openly gay.

Galindo is famous for his grace on the ice. A singles and doubles skating phenomenon, he won the World Junior Championship in 1987 and the U.S. National Championship in 1997. With doubles partner Kristi Yamaguchi, he won the World Junior Championship in 1988 and the U.S. National Championship in 1989 and 1990. In 1996 he won the bronze medal at the World Championships.

In 1997 Galindo published his autobiography, which recounted his childhood of poverty, the death of his older brother and a coach from AIDS, the death of his domineering father, and his mother’s mental illness.

In 2000 Galindo came out as HIV-positive. In 2001 he was awarded the Ryan White Award for Service to Prevent HIV/AIDS.

Boxer

b. July 1, 1981, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico

“I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man.”

The 2000 Olympic Games were pivotal for boxer Orlando Cruz. After representing Puerto Rico in the games, Cruz launched his professional boxing career. He won a world featherweight title and went nine years without a defeat.

The homophobia that Cruz experienced growing up in Puerto Rico made it difficult for him to accept his sexuality, especially in the world of boxing machismo. Cruz’s internal conflict continued as rumors spread among boxing fans. This tension culminated during his 2008 world title fight. “The spectators bad-mouthed me; they called me a faggot,” Cruz said. “That’s when I realized that something had to change.”

Cruz spent the next few years meeting with a psychologist to work through coming out publicly. In 2012 Cruz became the first professional boxer to come out during his career and one of the first professional athletes to come out while still active. Soon after, he won a major fight wearing rainbow shorts. A year later he married his boyfriend.

In 2013 the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame made Cruz an inaugural inductee. He stated, “I want kids to know that you can be whoever you want to be, including a professional boxer.”

Athlete

b. November 1, 1937

d. July 11, 1987

“Winning is doing your best.”

Tom Waddell was an Olympic athlete and founder of the international sporting event, the Gay Games.

Born Thomas Flubacher in New Jersey, Waddell’s parents divorced. At 15, he moved in with his neighbors, Gene and Hazel Waddell, who adopted him. Waddell attended Springfield College, where he studied pre-medicine and was a star gymnast and football player. In 1960, he enrolled at New Jersey College of Medicine. In the early 1960’s, he participated in the African-American civil rights demonstrations in Alabama.

In 1966, Wadell joined the Army and served as a medical doctor. Two years later, he competed in the Olympics, placing sixth in the decathlon. Because of a knee injury, he retired from athletics. After the Army, Waddell completed a graduate fellowship at Stanford University.

In the mid-1970’s, Waddell came out to friends and family and began exploring the burgeoning gay scene in San Francisco. After attending a gay bowling competition, he was inspired to organize a gay sporting event. Modeled on the Olympics, he founded the Gay Games, which first took place in 1982 in San Francisco. Originally called the “Gay Olympics,” the U.S. Olympic Committee sued Waddell for the use of the word “Olympics” and the organization was renamed “Gay Games.”

In 1981, Waddell began a relationship with Zohn Artman. That same year, he met lesbian athlete Sara Lewinstein, and they decided to have a child. After their daughter was born, Waddell and Lewinstein married.

Waddell experienced the success and international impact of the Gay Games. “Tom wanted to emphasize that gay men were men, not that they were gay,” said Waddell’s biographer. “He didn’t want them to lose their homosexual identity, or hide it; he just didn’t want them to be pigeonholed by it." In 1987, Waddell died of AIDS-related complications.

Olympic Diver 

b. March 2, 1988

"Being ‘out' for me means being just as I am with nothing to be ashamed about and no reasons to hide."

Australian diver Matthew Mitcham is one of the few openly gay Olympic athletes. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Mitcham won a gold medal after executing the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history.

Mitcham grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He competed as a trampoline gymnast before being discovered by a diving coach. By the time he was 14, he was a national junior champion in diving. A few years later, he won medals in the World Junior Diving Championships.

In 2006, after battling anxiety and depression, Mitcham decided to retire from diving. The following year, he returned to diving and began training for the Olympics.

In Beijing, Mitcham won an Olympic gold medal in the 10-meter platform dive. It was the first time in over 80 years that an Australian male diver struck Olympic gold. After his triumph, he leaped into the stands to hug and kiss his partner, Lachlan Fletcher.

Mitcham was the first out Australian to compete in the Olympics. There were only 11 openly gay athletes out of a total of over 11,000 competitors in Beijing.

Mitcham was chosen 2008 Sports Performer of the Year by the Australian public. The same year, Australia GQ named him Sportsman of the Year. After accepting the GQ award, Mitcham joked, "Oh, my God, I’m a homo and I just won the sports award!"

Mitcham was a guest of honor at the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne. He is studying at Sydney University and training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

"I look at the last 20 years as a long, winding path of lessons and some hardship," Mitcham said in 2008. “I hope I do have more lessons to learn. I look forward to that."
 

Olympic gold medalist

b. January 29, 1960

“When you're a kid growing up, and you think you're gay, you're often teased. But sports can be great for building self-esteem.”

The winner of five Olympic medals, Greg Louganis is the world’s most successful diver and among the most high-profile openly gay athletes.

Raised in San Diego, Louganis scored a perfect 10 in the Junior Olympics in 1971. In 1976, he won an Olympic silver in Montreal.

Louganis graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1983. At the World Championships the following year, Louganis became the first diver to score a perfect 10 at an international meet.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Louganis won two gold medals—one each in the springboard and platform events—and was the first to exceed 700 points in the two competitions. For these achievements he received the Sullivan Award, which honors America’s best amateur athlete.

During the springboard qualifying rounds at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Louganis misjudged a jump and struck his head on the diving board. Despite suffering a concussion, he continued diving and won two gold medals. He became the first male diver to win double golds in consecutive Olympics.

In 1993, Louganis starred as a chorus boy who dies of AIDS in the Off Broadway play “Jeffrey.” He came out and disclosed his HIV-positive status at the 1994 Gay Games in New York.

Louganis’s best-selling autobiography, “Breaking the Surface” (1995), recounts his experiences as an openly gay athlete. 

Athlete
b.  July 5, 1979
“Whether it's in the right way or sometimes the wrong way, you learn about life and its lessons.”

Amélie Mauresmo was the World No. 1 tennis player. She won 25 career titles including two Grand Slams. In 2004, she received an Olympic Silver medal in tennis singles.

Mauresmo was born in Laye, France, where she began playing tennis at age 4. Her talent on the court was quickly recognized, and her parents enrolled her in private lessons. At 17, she was named Junior World Champion after winning both the French Open and Wimbledon. 

In 1999, two years into her professional career, Mauresmo came out during the Australian Open. She publicly embraced her girlfriend after defeating the World No. 1 player, Lindsay Davenport. Mauresmo credited her on-court success to coming to terms with her sexuality. She is the first tennis player to come out without losing any major sponsors.

Mauresmo is one of only a few tennis players to reach World No. 1 ranking before winning a Grand Slam title. Known for her powerful one-handed backhand and net play, she has defeated top-ranked players such as Venus and Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, and Justine Henin. In 2003, she helped France capture the Fed Cup.

In 2007, the president of France presented Mauresmo with the Legion of Honor. Two years later, she announced her retirement.

Since retiring, Mauresmo has coached other professional tennis players. In 2009, she became ambassador of the Sport for Life Foundation, a Swiss-based organization dedicated to supporting young athletes. “I want to share the experiences I’ve gathered along my career with young people so they cannot walk into traps,” she says. “Respect for values is the foundation for success!”

Mauresmo resides in Geneva, Switzerland.